A review by latebush
In the Country We Love: My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero

emotional hopeful informative fast-paced

2.5

  • diane really treats everyone in her story with lots of depth and respect, but does less so when she regards herself. i'm sorry babe i can't take you seriously when you talk about your mental health issues and self esteem issues and end the paragraph with #selfsabotage. #mood. #awkward. #LOL.
  • she came off as extremely vapid, cringy cheugy millennial and petit-bourgeois/middle-class liberal american who believes simply in the power of #voting and #reform. but i don't expect a sound class analysis from a memoir like this. i knew what i was getting into!!! even though she grew up working class, you can tell that the upward mobility she experienced made her america-pilled. if i can succeed despite my circumstances, so can you!!!! we are the real american dream!!!!!!!!! ugh...
  • she believes too highly in the american dream and identifies too closely with america as a whole, referring to the founding fathers as “our forefathers” - not admirable or more convincing to join her cause. the very same country you love is the very same country that wants to deport you. immigration reform cannot come from a place of "this isn't us!!!!" or "this isn't what our forefathers wanted!!!!!!!" they don't know you, they don't care for you, they probably would've oppressed you. but that's the folly of reform in general... we cannot reform our way out of fascism, which is what this ultimately is. in the short term sure, but long term? you can't just tell us to vote... at least by now in 2025, we all know it's bullshit.
  • im not undermining her personal experiences tho, i am simply critical of how she is externalizing them and the conclusions she's come to. it’s important for stories like hers to be out there, especially when her experience is one out of hundreds of thousands of stories just like hers. it's not told perfectly, and doesn't promote ideologically sound ideas. but it’s a real look into a highly traumatic yet common injustice in america that is systematically set up and has so many incentives for the american people to maintain… the war on immigration is yet another symptom of fascism… and fascism can be felt in all corners of our daily lives. let this serve as a reminder
  • the call to action section at the end was a great addition and reading that and the afterword a couple weeks before trump is inaugurated again was a great reminder of how high the stakes will be for undocumented immigrants these next 4 years
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